Et tu Brute, or a subtle strategery?

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 10:27 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

Et tu Brute, or a subtle strategery? 2017-03-17T22:27:04+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Who knows what the heck is going on with Senate Republicans these days? Last week I popped off in anger at them for their cowardice, and was taken to task for doing so, by several Republicans who felt I was “weakening” the GOP Senate, “Do you want to see Pat Leahy in charge? Ted Kennedy?” was the gist of what I got. My response is: seems to me they are in charge, already.

Now, I see that some on the right – including a few who criticized me privately last week – are tearing their hair out THIS week over this story in which we read that the GOP Senate is asking the WH for a report on just when we might be getting out of Iraq.

The proposal on the Iraq war, from Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, and Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, would require the administration to provide extensive new quarterly reports to Congress on subjects like progress in bringing in other countries to help stabilize Iraq. The other appeals related to Iraq are nonbinding and express the position of the Senate.

I don’t see this as a particularly bad thing. The Senate is asking for progress reports. In an age where any discussion about the war is coming from the left and is being spun in vast negatives, this is probably a pretty shrewd move – it creates reports, on the record, about where we are at, and forces the press and the Democrats to deal with the REAL record, and not convenient frames, slogans and spin cycles.

I see this as an invitation by the Senate to the President to STOP GOING QUIET and to KEEP TALKING TO US about the war. We’ve seen where “going quiet” gets him and the rest of us.

I mean, let’s think about this: Last May, President Bush was dancing with Georgians celebrating their Independence and all was (relatively) well. Then he – against all sense – unaccountably went quiet. All summer. Then Katrina happened.

The president cannot be allowed to “go quiet” again. Not when the Democrats are bringing the full force of the left-leaning press to bear against this presidency, and conservatism and the war, on a 24/7 basis. When we see columnists re-writing over our own memories and we hear Chris Matthews spitting out utter lies (he actually said President Bush “promised lower gas prices” if we went to war??? Amazing!), then it takes whatever it takes to get the president to keep talking to the American people.

I am no fan of the GOP Senate. I think they are to a one useless, meandering, and too concerned with their own re-elections, and I will not cut them some slack as I was admonished to do yesterday, because they have not earned my slack, they have earned my suspicion, my lack-of-faith, my raised eyebrow and my curled lip.

The president has earned my support and my trust, which is why I gave him the benefit of the doubt over Harriet Miers. I think this call to “give them some slack” is pretty misplaced. I can’t think of a single thing the Republican Senate has done even within the last year, to make me feel “slacky” toward them. Alito’s hearing doesn’t come up until January, no drilling in ANWR, they did nothing – NOTHING – in all these months to beat back the “Bush lied” meme, and I am supposed to believe that having a GOP majority in the Senate MEANS something? I don’t think so.

So this is as far as my “slack” will go. I am willing to believe, based upon what I am reading, that this latest move by the GOP senate may NOT be the end of the world as AJ Strata knows it :-). I am willing to believe that with this move the GOP is doing a couple of possibly shrewd things:

1) it is staying ahead of the Democrats who would love to be able to crow that they “ended the war” in time for the 2008 elections, but who will forever be stymied by their incredibly stupid, “let’s tell the terrorists when we’re leaving” insistance on dates and deadlines.

2) it is forcing the president to keep talking to America. Which he needs to do. Unfiltered.

It seems to me no one – except the press and the Dems, apparently – can say precisely what Frist, Warner et al mean by this. I don’t know who is right or wrong, here. I’ve stated what I am thinking. I could be all wet. Astute Blogger is really angry and calling for Frist to resign; he sees this as both cowardice and political opportunism, and he might be right. Like me, Ed Morrissey is thinking this is strategic, and he is not ready to wring his hands. Bryan Preston, guest blogging for Michelle Malking calls it “dumb”. Hugh Hewitt who, some of you might remember, was vilified as a GOP water-carrier during the Miers debacle is fit to be tied. Polipundit is oddly silent on the matter, as is The Corner although they DO have this excellent excerpt from Joe Lieberman’s remarks on the defeat of the Democrat “timetable” idea.

You really MUST go read Lieberman’s remarks – they are what any intellectually honest person would say about Iraq.

If we have learned nothing else over the past few months, we have learned (some of us already knew it) that it is IMPERATIVE that the president keep talking to America, and doing so beyond the media filters. This idea may be nothing more than a way to insure it, no matter how it is being spun.

All I know is, the Republican Senate has only one more chance with me, and this is it. If they’re betraying the President, AGAIN, then all bets are off.

The Fourth Estate

War on Terror

Why can't weeee be ...

Previous Post

November 15, 2005

"His name's on the report!"

Next Post

November 15, 2005 GOP WOMEN: the nerve lacking in the Senate

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Revelation, what is written on the thigh of the rider on the white horse?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Alpha and Omega Faithful and True The Word of God King of Kings and Lord of Lords